"There was never a plan at all," Galveston school district Police Chief LeRoy Amador said today.

"The mayor called a shelter of last resort and, with a skeleton crew, we improvised," he said.

Sharon Frazier, 48, owes her life to the shelter. She flagged down a police car Friday in fierce winds and rising water and got a ride to the high school.

"I would have been dead if I'd been out there," Frazier said.

Residents plucked from flooding houses came or were brought to the high school from all over the city. There were no beds, blankets or pillows. But the evacuees were served lunch and breakfast with food from the school cafeteria.

Amador said a foot of water entered the building as the storm roared through, and everyone was moved to the second floor.

Although miserable, with no power or air conditioning, those sheltered at the high school were glad to be alive.

Joe Patterson, 40, brought his wife and mother to the improvised shelter after hearing a television announcer say that if they lived in a one- or two-story building, they should pin their Social Security number to their chest so their bodies could be identified.

They nearly didn't make it. A surge of water lifted his pickup truck and skewed it sideways as he approached the high school. But a moment later he got traction. Within hours, his parked pickup outside the school was submerged.

Police Sgt. Annie Almendariz said officers, who also spent the night without bedding in the shelter, broke up a couple of fights and had to deal with a couple of intoxicated people.

Amador said the only injury at the shelter was a woman who fell and hit her head. Her wound was bandaged and she was placed on a cot.

"They were angels in blue," said Amelia Collins, 76, who came to the shelter with two uncles. "They treated us with lots of love, compassion and understanding."